Fertilizing ready for the future, now the advice

In recent years a lot of work has been done to develop climate-friendly fertilizers and equipment to apply them correctly. What it lacks now is the correct fertilization advice. They still remain traditional. Does the intervention of LTO Nederland bring about a change?

The website climate agreement.nl is an example of a good and user-friendly website. You will find a lot of factual information there. This includes a table with measures proposed by the Agriculture and Land Use Sector Table. These measures arose from consultations between a wide range of organizations involved in agriculture: from LTO Nederland to Milieudefensie.

Climate agreement offers an opportunity
The table appeared as part of the interim report on the main points of the Climate agreement, which is to come into effect from 1 January 2019. The public now has the opportunity to react to the proposals, which the authors present unanimously and with pride. They have succeeded in developing a feasible plan for the reduction of 3,5 million tons of CO₂ to put down. The possible reduction is even more.

That reduction of fertilizer use appears in that plan, surprises no one. After all, this is a hot spot in the climate statistics; since its drafting by the IPCC at the end of the last century. That is why agreements were made in 2008 in the Sector Covenant on Clean and Efficient Agrosectors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (as a result of the production and application of artificial fertilisers). This has led to the Precision Agriculture Program implemented by ZLTO (on behalf of LTO Nederland) between 2010 and 2015.

It has provided us with the machines, fertilizers and knowledge necessary for climate-friendly fertilization. The adoption rate of this method in open cultivation is now about 20%. Plenty of practical examples: from low tech to high tech machines. This is to achieve a reduction of at least 1,4 million tons of CO . through fertilization₂ to obtain.

Advice is left behind
The growers who want to use their craftsmanship to switch to a climate-friendly fertilization, will unfortunately find little information in the 2 official fertilization advice databases. These form the basis for the advice on soil investigation results forms and are therefore decisive for fertilization practice in the Netherlands. However, these recommendations are still based on traditional fertilizer use.

Of course, that needs to change soon. That will not be a problem. A representative of LTO Nederland holds the chair in both scientific committees. The ball is therefore in LTO Nederland's court. Practice what you preach!

Herre Bartlema

Herre Bartlema is chairman of the NCOK: Netherlands Center for the Development of Circular Precision Agriculture. The aim: to promote the application of practical precision farming techniques to contribute to a clean sector.

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